Review of The Chronicles of the Black Company, by Glen Cook
KVM''s review rating: ranges from ** (not so good) to **** (very good)
The Chronicles of the Black Company encompasses three series, in the following order:
The original Chronicles
The Black Company****
Shadows Linger***
The White Rose****
The Silver Spike**
Books of the South
Shadow Games****
Dreams of Steel***
The Glittering Stone Series
Bleak Seasons****
She is the Darkness****
Water Sleeps****
Soldiers Live****
The Silver Spike, which takes place between The White Rose and Shadow Games, is the only poor novel in the series. It is only peripheral to the main series and does not feature the main characters (it does take place in the main world, just after events The White Rose). It is not worth reading and is, in fact, the worst of Cook''s books.
The Chronicles (which I use to refer to all of the series) are excellent mercenary action books, taking place in a very unique, albeit not so fully realized, world. Cook''s world reminds me a lot of David Gemmel''s world of the Drenai series—unique, very interesting, but also somewhat chaotic, with few areas detailed but lots hinted at. Cook''s strength, like Gemmel''s, is rather in his characters, which you end up rooting for, rooting against, or weeping over.
The Chronicles start in a world in conflict between powerful immortal sorcerers (the "Taken") and the nations that oppose their seemingly unconquerable empire. The Taken are compelled to resurrect their "Dark Lord" who, like most such entities, is a demigod sorcerer who gave the Taken many of their powers and immortality and thus holds some compulsion power over them. The "free nations," led by the White Rose (a young female general with anti-magical powers who is part of a prophecy to destroy the Dark Lord), oppose them in this quest.
The Black Company, most often led by the main protagonist and the company''s field-surgeon Croaker, are mercenaries in the employ of the Empire (yes, they are on the "evil" side, at first). The Black Company''s victorious fame precedes it in battle, sometimes frightening off adversary armies before a battle is even joined. The plots are long and intricate throughout the series, and the last quadrilogy involves Croaker''s decades-long obsession with discovering the mysterious origin of the Black Company, a quest that ends up on another plane of existence. Enemies become friends, friends turn on friends, and prophecies that are held as certain turn out to be something altogether different.
The series is gritty, realistic in many ways, and is very hard to predict because of its unique plot and unexpected twists. From a military perspective it is more realistic than any other fantasy novels I''ve read. Battles are not pretty, routes and surrender are not uncommon, chaos often rules the crow-shrouded battlefields, and Croaker and his companions do not always make "morally correct" decisions, but side with practicality and saving their own hides. While replete with fights large and small, there is a lot of room for plot and character development, and Cook does not unduly dwell on every sword-stroke in battle scenes.
The main characters are not your usual cast. Croaker, who begins as a surgeon and Company historian but quickly becomes the Company''s elected leader, is a moody fellow with a desire to do the right thing in a world filled with bad alternatives. The Lady, one of the Taken, flops from one side of the conflict to the other, with a complex vendetta that involves a mysterious relative. Murgen, a camp follower who later grows to be a leader of the Company, goes from naïve tag-along to hero. Raven, a truly conflicted fighter or great renown,gic figure who is torn between love and hate, both of which define him and undo him.